Words You Can Use: The BAVC BLOG

by Matt Price, East Bay Manager, BUMP Beats (a program of Next Gen Programs at BAVC)

Middle School is a lot different now compared to when I attended 15 years ago. In many ways, the world has become much more accommodating to early teens. No longer is the joke about a teenager hogging the family phone all night applicable because today everyone has their own cell phone. Embarrassing notes are no longer confiscated and read by teachers because such top secret information can be passed over text messages, typed in a pocket, without even looking at the phone!

However, with all these modern conveniences come modern distractions. I teach middle school students how to make digital music on a computer using the software Reason. Since we are on computers about 75% of the time, the Internet is a constant distraction. In my first year teaching the class, I fought the use of the Internet and turned it off while the students were doing their lessons. This year, it wasn’t so easy since I couldn’t just pull out an ethernet cable like I could in my old classroom. This lead to daily battles for students’ attention between lessons on how to make drum beats and the newest online games. At some point, I had enough. I would never win a fight against the Internet. Instead, I decided to embrace the Internet and put the lessons online on a blog. This way the students would get the satisfaction of being on the Internet, but also keep focused on their daily lessons. I took it a step further and working with middle schoolers’ natural social tendencies, I asked each student to create their own blog so that they could have a place to post their songs, thoughts and interests. Right now I am in the middle of the second class in which I’ve incorporated personal blogs and so far, I like the results. The underlining goal of my classes is to improve the computer literacy of the students and the blog has been an excellent way to meet this objective.

You can check out the lessons online at bumpccpa.blogspot.com or ccpabeats.blogspot.com.

By Mindy Aronoff, Director of Training & Resources

Does meeting director Morgan Spurlock in person help one like the movie more? Hell yes. Well, let’s put it this way: about 13 minutes into the screening at SXSW in Austin where Mr. Spurlock was in attendance, a spring thunderstorm knocked all the power out. When the lights came back on, the projectionist was having a hell of a time re-booting the digital projector, so Mr. Spurlock–oh, let’s call him Morgan, shall we?–shouted out, “drinks for everyone on me!” Sure enough, 10 uniformed ushers began passing out cold cans of Tecate to the entire theatre (thank you, Texas liquor laws).

If you saw SUPERSIZE ME, you know Spurlock has the same kind of fun Michael Moore does (but he’s a lot cuter). In this doc, which premiered at Sundance in January, he shleps us through Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jerusalem and other colorful Middle Eastern sites, shoving the mic in people’s faces and querying them about bin Laden’s whereabouts like he’s asking if the food is good at Moti’s Falafel Stand.

Is the movie a joke? Not really, although I did laugh a lot. True to character, Spurlock comes across as the guy next door, an everyman who tells it like we would if we had the cajones. We see him, pre-trip, going through a rigorous faux-FBI training program aimed at teaching rookies when to duck and how to avoid being blown up into shwarma bits. It really is silly at times—outside of a Tora Bora cave he sings out “yoo hoo! Osama bin LAH-den…!” Ridiculous. But isn’t that kinda what you would want to do? (more…)

by Carl Weichert, BAVC Training & Resources Strategist

At the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) convention in Las Vegas this week, Adobe is previewing some exciting new functionality in the upcoming CS4 version of Premiere, its editing software – automatic transcription of the audio track of video files.

This is exciting in so many ways I could practically faint –

First, instead of sending off hours of documentary footage to a transcription service, you can now do it yourself.

Second, although not mentioned in the CNET article where I read this, I’m sure that it’ll be able to generate closed captioning and subtitles based on that transcription.

Third - Aargh, I’m so excited I can barely type anymore – as it says in the article, it will make video searchable by text while editing. No more shuttling back and forth looking for a particular word or phrase.

Fourth, this frame-based metatagging will not only be available while editing, but also in the finished product, making web video searchable by names or other terms. As the article says:

For example, a person could search a CNET video review for a product name and a specific feature, such as camera zoom.

All right, I’m going to go sit in a quiet corner of BAVC and hyperventilate a bit. Anybody have a paper bag?

By Alicia Schmidt, Marketing Strategist

Okay, so looking back, the folks at the National Association of Broadcasters(NAB) probably should have thought twice about asking a very famous, politically left, actor named Tim Robbins to give the keynote address at their 2008 show. Apparently, Tim decided against a planned “dialogue” on new media and instead launched into a humorous, expletive-laced tirade about the state of both the country and our media.

Sadly, I couldn’t find any video of dear Tim, but you can listen to his rant here.

Or you can check out other accounts of the day at Broadcasting and Cable.

By Carl Weichert, BAVC Training and Education Strategist

Adobe launched version 1.0 of its iTunes-style Adobe Media Player (AMP) this past Wednesday. AMP is an Air-based application that plays Flash video, either by streaming from the host site or by downloading the video. AMP checks for new episodes of user favorites and downloads them for later offline viewing.

For content providers, AMP offers a lot of control, using the Adobe Digital Rights Management Server. The videos online now are all advertisement-supported, but Adobe plans to add more options, such as paying to rent a video.

How does AMP compare to some of its competitors? In terms of picture quality, AMP delivers really good-looking HD video, and does it quickly. The only other online video service I’ve seen with comparable quality is Hulu. It definitely beats out Joost and some of the other sites I watch video on. In terms of content, it’s definitely lacking compared to other options – Joost and Hulu both have much more, and more varied, content. AMP has partnered with PBS, MTV, CBS, and other content providers to beef up their catalog, but right now, I’d say their strongest offering is Adobe TV, Adobe’s channel of instructional videos. (more…)

by Alicia Schmidt, BAVC Marketing Strategist

Okay, to be honest, this blog is going to be all over the place. That’s cause truthfully I can’t really wrap my head around all of this just yet, but here goes . . .

NPR recently reported that the world’s largest database on reproductive health (POPLINE, run by Johns Hopkins School of Public Health), has been blocking searches using the term “abortion” since late February.

Apparently a medical librarian at UCSF discovered the fact and contacted POPLINE. The folks at POPLINE told her that they had indeed turned “abortion” into a “stop” word – a word that is ignored by search engines – because they are funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (hello George Bush?) and they cannot by law support “abortion activities.”

The UCSF librarian then complained to the POPLINE administrators AND sent out warning messages to her colleagues through a mighty librarian list-serv. After word spread, the administrators quickly restored the search term. (more…)

by Lauren Sorensen, Assistant Director / Film Traffic at Canyon Cinema
(special to the BAVC Blog)

This last week, I left my post at Canyon Cinema here in San Francisco to travel to the flickering lights of Greenwich Village, New York City to attend the Orphan Film Symposium, presented by my alma mater, NYU’s Moving Image Archiving and Preservation program, and more specifically, tireless advocate and orphan film superstar Dan Streible. The Symposium is a biannual celebration, film festival, and history lesson, attended by independent filmmakers, archivists, scholars, and many other fascinating folks from around the globe. In its 6th year, last week was the first time the symposium found its home in New York City; in past years the celebration-cum-symposium has been held in Columbia, at the University of South Carolina.

When I told folks I would be attending a symposium on orphan films, I (of course) got the question - what is an orphan film? This is not surprising, considering the categories scholars and artists normally have to work with are so limited — independent, documentary, feature, — and the like. The orphan film, however, is much more inclusive:

“Generally, all manner of films outside the commercial mainstream: abandoned by its owner or caretaker. More generally, […] all manner of films outside of the commercial mainstream: public domain materials, home movies, outtakes, unreleased films, industrial and educational movies, independent documentaries, ethnographic films, newsreels, censored material, underground works, experimental pieces, silent-era productions, stock footage, found footage, medical films, kinescopes, small- and unusual-gauge films, amateur productions, surveillance footage, test reels, government films, advertisements, sponsored films, student works, and sundry other ephemeral pieces of celluloid (or paper or glass or tape or . . . ).” – Dan Streible, NYU

This years’ conference covered the gamut of the ephemeral history of moving images, from preserved nitrate films found in the NYU’s recently acquired collection of the American Communist Party, to preserved 2-inch videotapes of late night religious television program “Insight,” (very appropriately produced by the makers of the Twilight Zone) from the UCLA Film and Television Archive. (more…)

By Wendy Levy, Director of Creative Programming

With continued support from the MacArthur Foundation, the Producers Institute for New Media Technologies will happen May 30 – June 8 here at BAVC in San Francisco. The new crop of projects coming into this year’s Institute are part of a documentary-driven conversation focused on finding and engaging diverse audiences, creating social and political networks of participation, the notion of global community, the viability of Web 2.0 social change, emerging mobile media applications, games for change, and interactive strategies for multi-platform storytelling.

Check out full project descriptions from the recent press release: http://bavc.org/meet/news/press_releases/pr_apr_08.htm

The first panel of the Producers Institute will be open to the public this year, and it revolves around marketing social justice media. The always dynamic and uber-literate B. Ruby Rich will moderate. I’ll follow up with details of the where and when, but here’s the panel description. We are hoping to see if its possible for change-the-world stories to expand You Tube sensibilities, to rock CreateSpace, to shock iTunes, to blow out XBOX. And, of course, we want to know if you can actually make money while making a difference?

SOURCING THE FUTURE: MARKETING AND SUSTAINABILITY FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE MEDIA ONLINE

This panel discussion will unpack how documentary, advocacy, art, and entertainment fit together, how producers can catalyze and scale participation in dynamic, interactive sites that integrate with and support their long-form public media projects, and the kind of partnerships and collaborations that must be made to support this work. What is the lifespan of public media online? How do we help funders seed and sustain these projects? What should we be doing now to insure the legacy and impact of digital media and video art for the public good? In a time when audiences are supporting documentaries more than ever before, can Darfur is Dying capture the market share of Grand Theft Auto?

We also have some fantastic mentors coming this year to work with participants. Check out the newest piece by Second Life Reporter Bernard Drax. Last year, he did a great piece of reportage on the virtual Guantanamo prison we built at the Institute (actually Nonny de la Pena, Peggy Weil, and Ben Cunningham built it).

This year, he’ll be teaching machinima, talking about community building in virtual worlds, and reporting on Producers Institute projects in Second Life.

Check back here for more updates on the Institute and blog from the participants as we move forward . . .